Two academic disciplines that look at how non-biological variables affect the response to therapy are placebo response theory and set and setting theory. Both believe that aspects like expectations, planning, and beliefs are essential for comprehending the extra-pharmacological processes that determine how the body responds to medications.

But the two theories also have important distinctions of their own. Set & setting only considers how people react to psychoactive medications; placebo theory applies to all forms of treatment. Set and setting theory is intended for both experts and drug users, whereas placebo theory is targeted at medical professionals. Set and setting theory is mostly prescriptive, teaching therapists and users how to regulate and maximise the effects of medications, whereas placebo theory is primarily descriptive, explaining how placebo operates.

Although the precise interactions between these two perspectives still need to be clarified, when taken together, the advantages of their combined consideration become clear: While placebo theory suggests that psychedelics, as suggestibility-improving, meaning-magnifying substances, may serve to boost placebo response, set and setting theory gives a paradigm for the reintegration and optimisation of placebo response in clinical practice.